You often see indians outside the Holiday Inn Golden Mile touting for business selling fake designer watches. Anyone have any idea what the average price you expect to pay and what they usually start bid price on for automatic movement watches, not quartz battery powered? Labels such as TAG heuer, Omega, IWC etc.

C'mon man, you're not a newbie on this site.  You ought to know this should have been in the chat section.  Well, I'm sure it'll be moved sooner or later.

But no, I have no idea how much the watches go for.

Best to go and get these in China. They have different standards of fakes and some are very good. The best ones should cost about RMB200.

As mentioned by Geo, there is more than 1 standard of fake for watches.

"A" copy: an actual copy of a specific model inc all logos, numbers, trims.
Fake Rolex around HK$250 - $300

"B" copy: a generic style watch with most of the logos, trims, numbers etc but not a specific model.
Fake Rolex around HK$150 - $200

"C" copy: just a watch with logo printed on the face.
Fake Rolex < HK$50

hand bags and other items have similar situation, A, B, C copies at different prices.

Where in HK can you get the best price? I've only ever seen these offered in MK Ladies Street.

MK price is fine but you need to negotiate hard. Find someone, go upstairs and be prepared to negotiate hard, walk out if you have to... they'll chase you. for best price go to Shen Zhen. As a HK plan "B" the touts outside of the Holiday Inn are possible but I hv not done that so cant give you first hand feedback.

ahh...i love shopping in shenzhen around the dongmen area. i love going there at night, the people watching is great.

I noticed that in ShenZhen there are loads of fake watches ranging from 50 rmb to 1500 rmb (yes that is right). The ones that are between 50-250 rmbs you can find near the Lo Wu border crossing and to me they are considered B and C grade and are usually on display at the stores. For the AAA grade (1500) fakes, the store owner usually calls someone and someone will delivery it to the store within 10 mins. Personally, I can't believe how real these copy ones are. I purchased one and showed it my friend who works at a high end watch store and he couldn't tell me for 100% sure if it was fake or not. 1500 rmb is still alot of money for a fake watch but its been 5 years and it still works perfectly fine.

The ones in MK I find to be B and C grade but try not to pay more then 150-300 for these ones. If they know you are from over seas, they always start off at a ridiculous price like 800 or something like that. Just be patient and stand strong at 200-250 price point. If they say no then just move on to another vendor as there are plenty to choose from.

I've seen these RMB1,500 watches and they are well made with most of the parts coming from Switzerland. They are the fake Patek Philippe and Piaget watches with glass backs and the entire movement can be seen.. I reckon for that price you may as well save up and get a lower grade model of the real Patek Phlippe. It's a lot of money to pay for something you cannot resell and have to tell friends it's a fake should they ask.

[ Last edited by  geoduck at 20-5-2010 02:26 ]

Who determines what is a grade A, B, or C?  With china's loose laws, everyone wants to make a quick buck.  I known people who bought fake items for kicks & that grade A items falls aparts within a year.  I am guessing some people have better luck

You would be able to determine this yourself if you get your hands on an A B or C grade and just place it side by side with the real watch. I've seen the RMB1,500 AAA grade above and really could not tell it's a fake as I have a PP myself.

i took a former business partner to guangzhou a few times about 5 years ago where he got a fake pp. he wanted a breguet but the brand probably wasn't well known enough then for the fakers. anyway, he claims he's shown it to several pp dealers (without taking it off his watch), saying he wanted something like it, and no one has told him it's fake. sure he could be lying, but i don't see why he would.